Vincent van Gogh: Personal Tragedy, Artistic Triumph Abigail Takeuchi Junior Division Historical Paper Paper Length: 2,359 Introduction On July 27, 1890 in Auvers, France, a sharp gunshot pierced the air in a wheat field, scattering crows everywhere. Those birds were the only witnesses of Vincent van Gogh’s fatal act. They watched as Vincent limped towards the inn he was staying at, his hand covering his bleeding stomach. Dr. Gachet sent for Vincent’s brother Theo. Two days later, Vincent died in Theo’s arms, penniless and unrecognized for his creative achievement. Yet the portrait he painted for Dr. Gachet was sold in 1990 for $82.5 million dollars, the 13th highest priced artwork ever sold at that time.1 "Dying is hard, but living is harder still." Vincent said this when his father died in 1885, reflecting on his own life as a tortured artist.2 In his ten years’ pursuit for art, Vincent van Gogh suffered from poverty and madness, which influenced the subjects he chose to paint, the color, brush strokes, and the composition he used, and above all the intense feelings he expressed in his paintings. Therefore, his personal tragedy contributed to his artistic triumph, which cleared the path for Expressionism to emerge. Personal and Historical Background The 19th century saw a rise in different art movements: The Romantic Movement of the 1830s and 1840s, then Realism that extended from 1830 to 1870 with the popularity of photography, and then Impressionism.3 Impressionism was an art movement focused on 1 "Portrait of Dr. Gachet, 1990 by Van Gogh." Vincent van Gogh: Paintings, Drawings, Quotes, and Biography. 2 Van Gogh, Elizabeth Du Quesne. Personal Recollections of Vincent Van Gogh. Translated by Katherine Dreier. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1913 Print 3Weston, Neville. The Reach of Modern Art: A Concise History. New York, Harper and Row Publishers, 1968.pp. 19. 1 creating a mere impression of an object, rather than giving it fine details.4 Vincent and other Impressionists were greatly influenced by the simplicity, the color, and the lines of the Japanese art at the time. In 1874, Impressionist artists got their first chance to showcase their Academy- rejected art in the “Salon des Refuses”.5 Both the public and the art critics disapproved of Impressionism in favor of Realism. Many Impressionist painters started going into huge debts and some, like Monet, tried to commit suicide. The economic crisis from 1882-1883 only made things worse.6 Vincent van Gogh grew up in relative comfort as a pastor’s son. At 16, Vincent worked at a high-end art dealership owned by his Uncle Cent in Hague, Netherlands. There, Vincent was given the opportunity to see some of the best artworks. After trying out a few more careers, he found his passion in art at the age of 27 in 1880. Throughout Vincent’s ten-year art career, he lived off of his brother Theo’s meager income.7 Poverty Driven Triumph and Tragedy Being poor made Vincent the most productive painter in art history. Perhaps feeling a need to pay back Theo, Vincent “worked like a demon”.8 Within ten years, including his self- learning time period, Vincent produced more than 2,000 artworks.9 In some weeks, he painted one painting per day, many of which are the masterpieces in the museums around the world today. The hungry artist’s masterpieces inspired thousands of artists after him. 4 The Art Story Foundation. “Impressionism.” The Art Story, The Art Story Foundation, 2018 5 Weston, Neville. The Reach of Modern Art: A Concise History. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1968 Print. 6 Weston, Neville. pp. 13. 7 Hulsker, Jan. Vincent and Theo van Gogh: A Dual Biography. Ann Arbor Michigan: Fuller Technical Publications, 1990. 8 Tralbaut, Marc Edo Vincent Van Gogh New York: The Viking Press, 1969 Print. 9 Tralbaut, Marc Edo Vincent Van Gogh New York: The Viking Press, 1969 Print. 2 His poverty also gave him a chance to develop his art and experiment with new subjects, including peasants. In order to save money, he moved back to his parents’ village home in Nuenen from 1883-1885. There he took long walks every day in the countryside and he drew countless nature scenes and peasants working in the fields. Dressing and behaving like the peasants he admired, Vincent started the series of drawings and paintings of them, focusing on the somber aspects of their emotions.10 One of his most monumental paintings is The Potato Eaters. Using the dim light and rustic brush strokes, Van Gogh had effectively created a panorama of peasant life that gave expression to their numb, uncommunicative existence. Using his own pain and sufferings to portray the potato eaters’ hardships, Vincent has transformed The Potato Eaters into an image of human vulnerability. The Potato Eaters was later recognized as the beginning of the Expressionist Movement. The shortage of money to pay for models forced him to use the unconventional ones. He painted portraits for lower class people including peasants and prostitutes. He also turned himself into the first selfie king by painting 43 self-portraits. He painted friends and family often, some of his most famous works being The Postman and Portrait of Dr. Gachet.11 The Portrait of Dr. Gachet, in particular conveys strong emotions of sadness and “melancholy”.12 Lack of money inevitably damaged his physical and mental health. “...I’ve worked and economized and still not been able to avoid debt”, he wrote to Theo in 1883.13 The moment he arrived in Antwerp in 1885, he began to work like mad. To keep the supplies going, he was forced to go hungry, and in the end, he drove himself to physical exhaustion and mental 10 Tralbaut, Marc Edo Vincent Van Gogh New York: The Viking Press, 1969 Print. 11 Tralbaut, Marc Edo Vincent Van Gogh New York: The Viking Press, 1969 Print. 12 Van Gogh, Vincent. Compiled by Bernard, Bruce. Vincent by Himself. London: Orbis Publishing, 1985 Print and Paintings.pp.212. 13 Van Gogh, Vincent. Letter No. 390. To Theo van Gogh. Hoogeveen, about Wednesday, 26 September 1883. Letter. 3 deterioration. Being poor took a toll on his health, but his troubles deepened his empathy for others and fueled his artistic expression. The expressive qualities of the people and landscapes he painted were the fountainhead for Expressionism.14 Growth in Paris and Artistic Explosion in Arles Vincent immersed himself in the Impressionist movement when he went to Paris in 1886. In Cormon’s Studio, he met Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bernard and other artists who would become masters later. They all felt that Impressionism had its day and Vincent urged the movement should take a new direction. They ended up creating their own movement called Post-Impressionism.15 Vincent experienced and expressed his joyful emotions in his early days in Arles. Searching for brighter light, van Gogh arrived in Arles in February 1888. There he found the “land of blue tones and gay colors.” 16 The brilliant light enchanted him. Vincent balanced his heart and mind, which allowed him to create and invent new techniques and styles. Many masterpieces were created during that time. His most famous works there are Peach Tree in Blossoms, The Yellow House, and the The Night-Cafe.17 With every brush-stroke and bright color he applied to the canvas, Vincent expressed his emotional involvement with his subject. He worked on the canvas with great vitality and gaiety. He focused on emotional and rational elements in art and kept them balanced. He was able to avoid easy imitation because he wanted originality. “Vincent’s paradox was that he had taken every painter – and no single painter – as 14Weston, Neville. The Reach of Modern Art: A Concise History. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1968 Print. Pg. 37. 15 Tralbaut, Marc Edo Vincent Van Gogh New York: The Viking Press, 1969 Print. 16 Tralbaut, Marc Edo Vincent Van Gogh New York: The Viking Press, 1969 Print. 17 Tralbaut, Marc Edo Vincent Van Gogh New York: The Viking Press, 1969 Print. 4 his master.”18 It is no exaggeration to say that his output during these few months was one of the most extraordinary explosions of artistic energy the world has ever seen. Madness in Arles Vincent was at the peak of his career when his mind gave away, after having an argument with his friend Gauguin on December 24th, 1889. Vincent cut off his right earlobe and gave it to a prostitute named Rachel. The next day, the police found him unconscious in bed. “His suffering overwhelmed him and he tried to weep but he could not; poor fighter and poor, poor sufferer”, Theo wrote to his wife Johanna.19. After he recovered from that madness a week later, he immediately applied the feverish enthusiasm to his art. His Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear20 has an emotional intensity unparalleled in its time. The public did not react to his mental illness kindly. The town people were hostile and aggressive towards him, and the street urchins threw rocks to torment him. They watched him like an animal. Later they appealed to the mayor to send him to the asylum. On May 8th, 1889, Vincent voluntarily let Theo check him into the asylum in St. Remy in order to avoid his mental relapses. Unfortunately, his madness came back several times in the asylum. One time, Vincent swallowed his paints and turpentine. The caretakers also caught Vincent on several occasions stealing kerosene from the candles along the hall and drinking it. He was constantly in despair.21 Artistic Triumph Vincent now was separated from the outside world; surrounded by lunatics, with nobody he could talk to.